Ceylon, 1859, 4d. and 8d., imperforate.--Several of the first issues
of this colony, designed and engraved by Messrs. Perkins Bacon and
Co., and issued in 1857-9, are esteemed as great rarities in an
imperforate and unused condition. The 4d., 8d., 9d., 1s., and 2s. are
the rarest. The 4d., so long ago as 1894, fetched £130 at auction.
These stamps are amongst the few great rarities that may be entitled
to rank as works of art, and every year they are more sought after and
more difficult to get in fine condition.

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IX.

The Romance of Stamp Collecting.


The story of the development of stamp collecting, and of the trade
that has sprung up with it, is full of romance.

Our publishers' business, with its world-wide ramifications, was begun
by young Gibbons putting a few sheets of stamps in his father's shop
window. The father was a chemist, and it was intended that the lad
should follow in his father's footsteps; but the stamps elbowed the
drugs aside, and eventually yielded a fortune which enabled this